Marking your tools

[HawkinsHollow]

How do you gentlemen mark your tools? Paint pen? Nail polish? I just inherited a bunch of amazing old "Made in the USA" tools from my dad and I want to make sure they don't grow legs and walk away. With wooden or plastic things I have a branding iron I use, with larger items a stencil and spray paint. I want to mark my smaller hand tools with at least a colored dot that I can recognize as mine.

 

[Paddy]

I used green spray paint when a worker claimed my speed square was their speed square.

 

[Jchonline]

I use a metal etcher. Just 2 letters (initials). Permanent marker for chrome stuff.

 

[Doofy]

Don't loan Tools! Problem solved.

 

[ptsg]

A die grinder with a diamond bit. Typically just the initials for the first and last name.

For my dad, since he has about 25% of vision on the good eye, I marked bigger numbers for the size on the harder to read wrenches using the same method.

 

[Thomas]

Engraver.

 

[Jstpssng]

Pink spray paint! Nobody will steal them.

 

[Spike56]

I use Yellow Paint.... Also helps if I drop it in the grass.

 

[Oaktree]

I use Yellow Paint.... Also helps if I drop it in the grass.

I use flourescent orange on tools likely to be used in the woods, etc. for that reason.

Don't loan Tools! Problem solved.

That too! Other than a few "work parties" with our local snowmobile club, most of mine are used at home with no one else around but me. Downside is there's no one to blame it on if something walks off...

 

[JasperFrank]

Engravers are the devil's tool for anyone that works in the second hand markets.
Can't even count how many perfectly good laptops we could not sell cause someone had burned in, "property of XXXXXX." and then also added their social security number.

 

[ponytug]

My first question would to what goal? Anti-theft: I would engrave. The local county here will issue special property numbers in lieu of SS numbers to mark tools and AG equipment. If you use it outdoors, I'm a fan of colors not found in nature; hot pink, lurid purple, etc.

The previous owner here marked his tools with grass green. (Then again he may have been color blind, as the house was pale green with lilac/lurid purple trim. Not my favorite combination...)

All the best,

Peter

 

[jaxs]

I spray paint chains,boomers,axes,hammers,shovels,ratchet straps and other large tools. Paint mark some small tools and engrave some.

 

[Doofy]

I use flourescent orange on tools likely to be used in the woods, etc. for that reason.

That too! Other than a few "work parties" with our local snowmobile club, most of mine are used at home with no one else around but me. Downside is there's no one to blame it on if something walks off...

My children taught me the folly of buying the most expensive tools. Cheap tools are much easier to reconcile to myself when lost, borrowed or stolen.

 

[old and tired]

At work we have a shop and the tools would "walk off"... I painted everything gold... that lasted for quite a while. Things still started to disappear. Then I would find things in MY tool box that had Gold Paint... Do as I say... Not as, err, never mind....

 

[newbury]

About the only tools I'm at all concerned about "growing legs" are my DeWalt battery operated tools. Bothe my son and I have a lot of them so I put my brand in sharpie on the batteries and where the battery goes.
I do have a wide selection of black HF impact sockets which were almost impossible for me to read the size (shallow etching) which I've wiped white paint on the grooves.

 

[Tinhack]

Most of mine are blood stained.

My original wrenches (the ones I earned a living with 50+ys ago) have my initials ground into them. I still have my first 10-draw toolbox from Mongomery Ward. Most all the tools came from sears. I've added five more toolboxes of various brands since then. I'm the only one in the shop now but I can tell they're mine just by looking at the scratches.

 

[thepumpguysc]

A yellow dot from a paint marker pen will identify them as yours.. it’s fast and easy..
Or an engraver w the last 4 digits of your s.s. #..
Or if it’s not to long, your last name..

 

[/pine]

Marking your tools...
...I guess lifting your leg on them is not the best answer...!

 

[Doughknob]

S

I use a metal etcher. Just 2 letters (initials). Permanent marker for chrome stuff.

not sure what u r referring to here, but i am thinking a “pen” that has acid in it and u simply write on metal. It leaves a dark stain. Cant be wiped off.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

Thanks for the replies. I do not plan on lending these tools but I do plan on using them, potentially with friends around or helping friend's. I am not worried about any of these people stealing them from me but things get mixed up and in the wrong box. I just want me tools to be marked well so everyone knows where they belong.